News

The remaining qualifying wildcards for the 2010 ASB Classic featuring the Kia Motors Singles and Doubles have been confirmed with two teenagers being awarded the two places.

Austrian, Tamira Paszek and Russian Anastasia Pivovarova will both use the qualifying wildcards if required.

Paszek currently ranked at 187 in the world is a familiar face to tennis fans in New Zealand having made the semifinals of the 2008 ASB Classic. In that year she was ranked 41^st and barely 17 but defeated Yanina Wickmayer, Camille Pin and Maria Kirilenko in straight sets before falling to Lindsay Davenport 6-4 6-3.

Other big results which saw her rise to a career high of 35 in the rankings include a finals appearance at Bali as well as wins over highly ranked players such as world No1 Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta.

However her biggest career result was as a qualifier at age 15 years and nine months she won the WTA Tour title at Portoroz, Slovenia, one of the youngest in the game’s history to win a tournament.

An Austrian via Tanzania and Chile heritage, Paszek was entered in the 2009 ASB Classic but had to withdraw after suffering with a left foot injury. The rest of 2009 was also severely disrupted by injuries which meant very limited play.

The wildcard for Paszek is reciprocal with a wildcard available for a New Zealander into the Bad Gastein event in Austria in July.

Pivovarova is a 19-year-old from Moscow who has a ranking of 207 and is regarded as a teenage player with a bright future. She reached the second round of Miami and had a number of good results in ITF Challenger events.

She is coached by Craig Kardon, the former coach of Martina Navratilova.

Earlier Kiwis Kairangi Vano and Ellen Barry were given ASB Classic qualifying wildcards.

“Next weekend will be a great opportunity for the public to take advantage of free entry to watch a very strong qualifying lineup,” says ASB Classic Tournament Director, Brenda Perry.

The cut off ranking for the qualifying draw stands at 156 with names such as former world No4 Kimiko Date Krumm a seed in qualifying along with two-time former champion, Eleni Danililidou

In the ASB Classic doubles main draw the team of Kiwi, Marina Erakovic and Slovenian, Polona Hercog have been awarded a main draw doubles wildcard.

As a combination they made the final of the 2008 Istanbul WTA event together. Hercog has a ranking of 116 in doubles while Erakovic has a current doubles rank of 233, but has three titles and reached the doubles quarters of the US Open in 2008.